Following the previous episode’s cliffhanger, where Kyle found out his racist comments about other houseguests were circulated around the Big Brother house, Thursday night’s live elimination was set up to be full of drama.
According to Deadline, Kyle has been the most controversial houseguest of Season 24. He’s previously mocked a fellow contestant’s Brazilian accent, and told another that his hat made him look like “a Filipino rice farmer.”
His most egregious moment came when he assumed the BIPOC houseguests were forming an alliance similar to The Cookout and suggested that the game’s other players band together. While he never specifically said he wanted a “white alliance,” Wednesday’s episode showed a clip of him from Day 39 where he tells other white houseguests, “I’m sorry but after the Cookout, uniting under one common cause which was race … that has to play into my thought process moving forward in the game.”
These actions led social media to dub him “KKKyle.”
Once Brittany and Taylor were up for elimination and Michael won veto power, which allows him to replace one of them with someone else, Michael and Brittany decided to tell the house about what Kyle said. We’ll get to the convenient timing of their revelations later, but once all the dirty laundry was aired, the tears started to fall.
Per TV Line, after some typical Big Brother back and forth, a house meeting is called, so everyone can have an open, honest discussion about the situation. Kyle sobbed about his sheltered life, “unconscious bias” and apologized for his behavior.
I don’t know Kyle, so I can’t speak to his sincerity, but to me this whole episode felt like producers were trying to give him a redemption arc before he was eliminated.
As usual, the Black houseguests had to be the bigger people, graciously forgiving him and repeatedly extending a hand of love. An aggressive showdown wouldn’t have been as productive as the conversation everyone had, but it’s frustrating for us to once again be forced to politely forgive the racial transgressions of white people.
A particularly heartbreaking moment came when Monte explained to Kyle that growing up with white friends has led to multiple moments where he had to end the friendship when they either couldn’t understand or blatantly ignored how his world view as Black man was different.
Ultimately, Kyle replaced Brittany on the chopping block and was voted out 5-0. He received very little applause as he appeared for his exit interview with Julie Chen Moonves. When the host asked him about proposing an alliance with the other white contestants, he said, “At the time, it didn’t click in my mind. After looking back… I now realize how terrible that was, and I should have realized it from the start. I apologize to everyone watching, and everyone in the house.”
And as for Michael and Brittany, they need to watch their backs because several houseguests are not happy that they chose to keep Kyle’s comments to themselves for weeks, waiting until one of them needed an advantage to reveal the truth.
In fact Taylor and Terrance are already plotting Michael’s exit the minute one of them becomes Head of Household.
Big Brother airs Sundays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and Thursdays at 9 p.m. It’s also available to stream on Paramount+.